Trinidad Topples Mayorga

Felix Trinidad Knocks Out Ricardo Mayorga In The 8th Round Of His Comeback Victory.

October 3, 2004|By George Diaz, Sentinel Staff Writer

NEW YORK -- The "rusty car" left bloody skid marks all over Ricardo Mayorga.

Antagonized by Mayorga's flurry of petulant slurs leading up to their middleweight matchup at Madison Square Garden Saturday night, Trinidad responded with a punishing volley of punches that mercifully ended with 21 seconds remaining in the eighth round.

Referee Steve Smoger stopped the fight at that point, following a third brutal knockdown in the round.

"He can take a good punch, which was bad for him," Trinidad said.

Mayorga, a funky free spirit with hair dyed orange-red, mockingly teased Trinidad at the start the fight, sticking his face out for Trinidad to hit.

Trinidad gladly obliged throughout the night.

Despite Mayorga's bravado, it grew increasingly more painful for him as the fight progressed. At the end of Round 5, Mayorga, a gash underneath his left eye, needed help from one of the corner men to get back onto his stool.

It was obvious by then Trinidad was not a "rusty car" that was going to be towed back into retirement, as Mayorga predicted before the fight.

If anything, the silliness helped motivate Trinidad, who said that Mayorga was helping him hit Mayorga harder.

"I felt good about my performance, but my eye welled up and I couldn't see some shots," Mayorga said.

Although Mayorga (26-5-1) remained aggressive throughout the fight, he eventually was worn down by the crispness -- and accuracy -- of Trinidad's punches.

The CompuBox numbers, though not used in official scoring -- reflects the relentless charge of Trinidad. Trinidad landed 218 of 329 power punches -- a 66 percent clip -- including 69 in the last two rounds.

"I knew I could keep the pace up, and thanks to my discipline, I did," Trinidad said. "That was the game plan -- to be cool and calm, and it worked perfectly."

Trinidad, 31, was coming back to boxing following a 29-month retirement spent mostly in his native Puerto Rico, attending only a handful of fights, horseback riding, visiting sick people in hospitals and attending cock fights.

Then he found out he still had plenty of fight in him as well.

"Honestly, that fire inside of me is burning, and that is why I am back. If that wasn't there, I wouldn't be back in boxing," he said before the fight.

Trinidad -- who has held five titles in three divisions -- entered the ring to a huge ovation from a crowd of 17,406 in an arena overwhelmingly filled with Puerto Ricans who welcomed their native son back into the ring.

He did not disappoint.

Trinidad (42-1, 35 knockouts) immediately rises to the top of the heap among active fighters. A rematch with Bernard Hopkins -- the only man to beat him -- remains a possibility, as well as one with Oscar De La Hoya, who lost to Trinidad in a controversial decision in September 1999.